Repository: California State University, Dominguez Hills
Archives and Special Collections

Archives & Special Collection

University Library, Room 5039

1000 E. Victoria Street

Carson, California 90747

Phone: (310) 243-3013

URL: http://www.csudh.edu/archives/csudh/index.html

Abstract:
This collection comprises papers related to the career of Donald C. Blaisdell, author, political scientist,
and Departments of State and Agriculture bureaucrat. Subjects include international relations, education,
world peace, environmental issues, and Turkey–specifically the financial history of the Ottoman Empire.
Much of Blaisdell’s work examines the various relationships between politics and economics, as well as
international organization. This collection consists of correspondence, notes, drafts, manuscripts,
and printed books and articles from Blaisdell’s time as a professor of political science as well as his
work for the United States Government and the United Nations.

Language: Collection material is in English

Administration Information

Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred Citation

[Title of item], DONALD C. BLAISDELL COLLECTION, Courtesy of the Department of Archives and Special Collections. University
Library. California State University, Dominguez Hills

Acquisition Information

This collection was initially donated by Donald C. Blaisdell to the American Heritage Center at the
University of Wyoming. In 2007, the American Heritage Center donated the collection to Archives and Special
Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Processing Information

Materials were processed and arranged by Michele Anderson and Marie Beckermann in 2010-2011.

Biography

Donald C. Blaisdell (1899-1988) was born in New York. After earning a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania
State College in 1920, he worked for the United States Rubber Company for two years, and then took a position as an engineering
instructor at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey. It was while in Turkey that he met his future wife, Dorothea, who was an
instructor at the America College for Girls. After three years, he returned to the U.S. and earned an MA degree in 1926 and
a Ph. D. in 1929 from Columbia University, where he taught from 1928 to 1930.

Blaisdell spent 40 years teaching at various universities, including: Columbia, Williams College, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida,
Wellesley College, and the City University of New York. Most notably, Blaisdell was the political science department chairman
at City College at the City University of New York from 1955 to his retirement in 1967.

In addition to his academic career, Blaisdell also worked in the federal government for 17 years. Starting in 1936, he worked
with the Department of Agriculture for four years, then ten years with the State Department, and three years for the Foreign
Service. Blaisdell was in attendance at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 at which the United Nations was negotiated and
formulated. He later served as a delegate to the United Nations and was the U.S. representative for the United Nations agencies
in Geneva from 1952-1954.

Scope and Content

The Donald C. Blaisdell Collection contains material from 1879 to 1977. A large part of the collection consists of notes and
drafts of books as well as articles written by Blaisdell during his academic and political career. The collection also contains
copies of some of his books, including a Turkish translation of European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire and two books
that were gifts: Independent People by Halldór and Liv's Log 1900-1970 by Livingston Hartley. There are some miscellaneous
personal materials in the collection, such as book reviews both for Blaisdell’s work as well as others, along with some clippings,
brochures for the Cosmo Club, and a folder of biographical information. Documents from Blaisdell’s time working for the US
Government contain pamphlets, reports, memorandums, and correspondence. Highlights of his work for the Department of State
include correspondence with BB Wallace and confidential memorandums from 1944, in addition to documents about the Loyola Security
Board. The collections includes articles, newspaper clippings, pamphlets and notes regarding a number of international issue
such as imperialism in various parts of the world, disarmament, and socialism.

Material from Blaisdell’s vast political experience dominates the collection. It contains notes, correspondence, memos, and
publications regarding the Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund, the Overseas Education Fund for the League of Women Voters,
United Nations, and the Riverside Democrats, among others. Within the Riverside Democrats documents is a copy of a letter
from Robert F. Kennedy. There is also an invitation to the 1961 Presidential Inaugural Ball. The collection has a number of
Blaisdell’s notes and reports on international peace efforts, including many items from the Commission to Study the Organization
of Peace. This collection also contains two books from the Dumbarton Oaks conference in 1944, the conference ultimately lead
international leaders to formulate proposals to create what became the United Nations. In addition, he also kept a large number
of pamphlets and articles about environmental concerns ranging from overpopulation to nuclear energy.

This collection also contains items from the many courses that Blaisdell taught at various colleges and universities. It also
includes a letter from Blaisdell’s father that is undated but seems to suggest it was written early in Blaisdell’s academic
career as it gives advice on dealing with undergraduate students. The correspondence papers in this collection involve people
and entities not directly related to Blaisdell’s publishing works, such as Phillips Bradley, Joseph E Johnson, and The American
Liberty League.

Some of Blaisdell’s research and reference materials can be found in this collection, including several books and reports
written in French about the Ottoman Empire. These items date from 1879 through 1928 and were used in for his book: European
Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire (1929). There is also one non-dated French report about the administration of the
Ottoman public debt. Other items of reference use include various pamphlets and articles, the majority of which are about
politics, much of it relating to US politics from 1930-1962.

Arrangement

Arranged in thirteen series:

Series I. Publishing Records and Manuscripts, 1929-1973

Series II. Books/Articles by or given to DCB, 1929-1971

Series III. Personal and Miscellaneous Items, 1927-1974, no date

Series IV. Department of Agriculture, 1935-1968

Series V. Department of State, 1932-1953

Series VI. International Issues, 1900-1973, no date

Series VII. Political Involvement, 1913-1968, no date

Series VIII. School, 1925-1973, no date

Series IX. Correspondence, 1935-1972

Series X. Peace Efforts, 1926-1977

Series XI. Environmental, 1963-1971, no date

Series XII. French Pamphlets and Books Re: Ottoman Empire, 1879-1928, no date

Series XIII. Reference Pamphlets, 1927-1960, no date

Indexing Terms

Subjects

Commission to Study the Organization of Peace

Education

Environmental issues

International organization

Turkey

United Nations

Universities and colleges--United States

United States--Foreign relations

United States--Politics and government

Personal Names

Baker, O. E. (Oliver Edwin), 1883-1949

Berdahl, Clarence A. (Clarence Arthur), 1890-1990

Bortle, Rollin C.

Bradley, Phillips, 1894-1982

Chase, Stuart, 1888-1985

Johnson, Joseph E. (Joseph Esrey), 1906-

Squires, Arthur M., 1916-

Vose, Clement E.

Washburn, Harold Connett, b. 1884

Titles

Blaisdell, Donald C. American Democracy Under Pressure. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1957Blaisdell, Donald C. Economic Power and Political Pressures. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1941.Blaisdell, Donald C. European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929.Blaisdell, Donald. C. Government and Agriculture. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc, 1940.Blaisdell, Donald C. International Organization. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1966.Blaisdell, Donald C. Technology—The Key to Better Environment, 1973.